Tencent’s Real Name Social Network, Pengyou.com is Now An Open Platform

Tencent seems truly serious about opening up itself this time. Just two weeks after it released its open API. Just hours ago, Tencent’s social network Pengyou.com announced its open platform where you can already find around 40 applications from third-parties.

First of all, what is Pengyou (means Friend). You may only knows QZone, the social network claims over 428 millions users thanks to QQ. QZone obviously has a massive user base but the problem is that it is not really a real name network meaning the connection between the users on QZone is quite ‘virtual’ and many connections are built among strangers. This is said to be the difference and also the weak point to compete with RenRen and Kaixin001. Obviously Tencent does not want to give up the battle, Pengyou.qq.com was launched in July 2010 and until yesterday the service is moved to and officially launched on Pengyou.com. Also from strategy point of view, Pengyou is also the direct competitor of RenRen and Kaixin001 as it also targeted at both campus and office users.

Need to mention that unlike other Tencent’s online services which all require QQ ID as the login username. Pengyou even allows users to register with any valid email address, which is really a fundamental change for Tencent.

Tencent's Pengyou.com Open Platform - Application Gallery

Also take a closer look  at Tencent’s Open SNS platform, currently it offers three ways to connect with QZone and Pengyou: Share component, Like component and SNS API.

• Share component – allows users to easily share your content to QZone or Pengyou;
• Like component – like Google Friend connect service which allows Tencent users become the fans of any sites;
• SNS API – allows third-parties applications running on Pengyou open platform.

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